Elvis Presley had a passion for luxury automobiles, but no bullet-holed Pantera or pink Cadillac could ever replace the love he felt for his Stutz Blackhawks. He owned four and reportedly cherished the last of them, a 1973 model, the most, going so far to forbid his staffers to drive it. Long a part of Graceland’s collection, the Stutz has just completed a bit of necessary refurbishing and will be displayed at the upcoming Charlotte Motor Speedway Auto Fair.

The first Stutz Blackhawk prototype, built for Stutz Motor Car of America on a Pontiac Grand Prix chassis and inspired by a Virgil Exner design, was constructed in 1969. A second followed a few months later, intended for the auto show circuit and entrusted to a dealer in Beverly Hills, California. When Presley was shown the car and told he could place an order for one of his own, The King was a bit more succinct, saying that he’d take the demonstrator. When dealer Jules Meyers began to protest, Elvis pointed out that being seen with the Stutz would generate more exposure for the company than Meyers (or the auto show circuit) could hope to generate. With a check for $26,500, Elvis became the first owner of a Stutz Blackhawk.

After a bit of customization from George Barris, Presley took delivery of the car on October 12, 1970. In July of 1971, Elvis’s Los Angeles chauffeur was taking the car to be washed when it was damaged in an accident. Instead of repairing the Stutz, Presley simply placed the car in storage and ordered another one in September of 1971, also finished in black. A year later, he’d order a 1972 model in white, followed on September 6, 1974, by a fourth Stutz Blackhawk III, a 1973 model in black with red leather, complete with gold-plated trim.

Perhaps because of the loss of his first Stutz, Elvis reserved the 1973 Blackhawk for his own use, and personally racked up 8,450 miles in three years. It was in this car that Elvis was photographed just past midnight on August 16, 1977, returning from a late night dentist appointment. Less than 24 hours later, Elvis was to leave on the start of another concert tour, but years of hard living finally caught up with the star known for his excesses. Roughly 15 hours after the last photo of the star in his Stutz was taken, Presley was found dead in a bathroom at his Graceland mansion.

Following his death, the 1973 Stutz was put on display in Graceland as part of 30 vehicles in the Graceland Archives. Decades of display took a toll on the car, and late last year Elvis Presley Enterprises contacted Pontiac restorer Walt Hollifield to inquire about preserving the car for future generations to enjoy.

As Hollifield describes the work performed, “We did not ‘restore’ the car. That would suggest we stripped off the car’s history with Elvis and made it like it just came from the factory. No, what we did was take it back to exactly how it was when Elvis drove it. We replaced the dry-rotted Firestone tires with a fresh set from that period. We buffed out every inch of the paint. We replaced a few mechanical parts that had decayed from sitting, like spark plug wires and the muffler. Rather than take the engine apart to inspect it, we looked inside with a camera scope. The doors were sagging, so we fixed the hinges.”

Gallery images courtesy of the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The refurbished car was revealed to the press (with the help of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rick Hendrick, Ray Evernham, Elvis Presley Enterprises CEO Jack Soden and Charlotte Motor Speedway president Marcus Smith) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday, March 25, and will make its official public debut in the Classic Car Showcase Pavilion at the at the Speedway’s AutoFair, scheduled for April 3-6. For additional details, visit CharlotteMotorSpeedway.com.

There are a lot of Elvis fans who would pay big bucks for anything he touched. But these people are getting up in years and in a decade many will have passed. The next generation is not nearly as smitten over Elvis stuff. If your going to sell your Elvis stuff now is the time. That car might go for $250k now, in a decade it will be just another Pontiac Gran Prix with Super-Fly treatment. It might bring $20k as a novelty.

The second 69 prototype is still on display at the Graceland car museum, the production 71 exists and is in the hands of a private owner, the 72 was I believe given by Elvis to Dr. Ghanem. The car is no longer white and is in the collection of a Stutz fan.

In 1967, the company my father worked for had an open house celebrating the new 5500 ton press that was just put into service (the press was named Cerrobelle company was in Bellefonte PA). They had a 1967 Stutz Bearcat (or Blackhawk) on display that was painted black and the normal chrome moldings were all brass. I was told the car was made completely of brass, which I highly doubt is accurate. Regardless, it was a beautiful car from what I can remember. Sure would like to know more about that car.

My father had worked for Cerro Copper & Brass (Earlier called Titan Metal) also. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1955, but I attended the open house you refer to in 1967 and got to see Cerrobelle – and the Stutz.

Elvis had a flair for the fancy and showy stuff but like everything else including music from the 50’s and 60’s each day that passes less and less is heard of it or the King. Almost like Babe Ruth or the Rat Pack still the Greatest but rarely talked about anymore…

There are still some incorrect/odd statements and images in this story.

First, Jules Meyer’s original dealership where Elvis would have got his Blackhawk was not in Beverly Hills. Anyone from SoCal could tell you that! Meyer’s Pontiac dealership where they originally sold Stutz was on the corner of Little Santa Monica and Westwood Blvd…. in West Los Angeles… bordering Westwood. I lived in Westwood Village at the time and I still have my Jules Meyers Stutz handout that was given to me at the dealership when the cars were new.

Beverly Hills is at least a mile or more away! People keep moving the city line in these stories. By the time the Stutz franchise was actually moved to Beverly Hills for real, it was years and years later. This was located on Wilshire Blvd.

Next, the cheap fake “wire wheel” shown in place on the trunk of the Stutz is no way original–at least NOT for first series Stutz. When new, these cars came with special 17-inch Firestone LXX tires and wheels, not the awful thing shown. Yes, I have factory photos.

When the Firestone LXX wheel and tire series was discontinued, Stutz began showing up with Dayton wire wheels with fake knock-off spinners on the. These were beautiful real wire spoke wheels.

For some odd reason, later on some Stutz cars began turning up with the fake wire basket over a chromed disc (like shown in the photo). They sold these same wheels at Pep Boys and you could find the baskets off on the sides of the Los Angeles freeways back in those days as they had a nasty habit of flying loose from the wheel! I think these were branded “Appliance.” I have seen some with a “Stutz” cap on them but they were certainly not something that belonged on such an expensive, custom-built car!

A set of these awful wheels with even more awful blackwall tires was also stuck on Lucille Ball’s first series black Stutz blackhawk in later years–heaven knows why. It had ostrich skin upholstery and has turned up from time to time labeled as belonging to Elvis. Last time I saw it (labeled as Lucy’s car) was in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace car museum. Yes, again I have photos.

By the way, first series had a split windshield… which does not appear to be on the car claimed to belong to Elvis.

Virgil Exner designed these cars, so calling them “pimpmobiles” is hardly accurate. AND for the time period it was built, anyone throwing darts at the Stutz ought to take a look at some of the other questionable “luxury” stuff that was on the market at the time–some for even MORE money. Anybody remember a thing called the “Titan”? It was made out of a Continental Mark IV with Ford station wagon tail lights stuck on the rear turned sideways. And… there were others…far more deserving of names and arrows…

I am a big Elvis fan but most of his cars displayed in Graceland and the Country Music Hall of Fame were pretty much all pimpmobiles. His taste in cars was extemely unrefined. Virgil Exner had a long history of being instrumental in designing garish crap. This car falls in line with all his cars. Junk.